A CNN panel devolved into guests talking over during a heated discussion over President Donald Trump's "big, beautiful bill."
The debate centered around the controversial Republican-backed budget that calls for drastic cuts to Medicaid and imposes new work requirements for recipients. The discussion highlighted stark partisan divisions.
CNN played a clip of Rep. Andy Barr (R-KY) calling on his colleagues to pass the legislation.
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“For the life of me, I don’t know why anyone—Democrat or the grandstanders—would vote against this bill. I think it's political suicide," he said. "Voting against this bill is voting for a $4 trillion tax increase. It’s voting for increases on taxes on middle-income Americans. It’s voting for tax increases on tips, tax increases on overtime.”
Democratic strategist Adrienne Elrod had a different opinion, saying she failed to understand why one of the 12 to 20 or so "vulnerable Republicans" who won in a "very marginal district" can look his constituents "in the eye," many of whom benefit from social safety net programs such as Medicaid and Social Security, and say, “I voted for the largest reduction to Medicaid in the history of the program since it was incepted.”
"So how do you actually go home and do that?" she asked.
Elrod warned CNN conservative political commentator Scott Jennings that "Democrats will remember."
"There will be a lot of money spent in these districts for Republicans who voted for this bill—making sure that every single one of their constituents is aware of the cuts they made to their programs and how they are actually affecting their lives adversely," she said.
Jennings, a staunch Trump defender on the network, refused to concede ground on the bill, however, and instead jabbed Democrats.
"I have no doubt that Democrats will spend money complaining about this, because anything that we take away from illegal aliens, Democrats go insane about!" he said, as Elrod cut him off.
"We’re not talking about immigration. We’re talking about safety," Elrod interjected.
Jennings countered that the GOP is actually targeting "illegal aliens" using Medicaid as well as "able-bodied people needing to show some kind of work product here."
As Jennings insisted there "are ways to cut this that don’t impact a single person who actually needs it," Elrod lost it.
"This bill is not doing that," she shot back.
As Jennings said, the GOP wants to tout that it kicked illegal aliens off Medicaid to "shore it up," Elrod continued pressing him.
"That's not what this bill does!" she exclaimed.
The Congressional Budget Office has released several key findings about the sprawling tax and spending package. The CBO estimates the bill would increase the federal deficit by $3.8 trillion over the next decade, and would cut federal spending on programs like Medicaid, food stamps (SNAP), and other services by about $1 trillion over the same period.
Watch the clip below or at this link.
